This article reports on an investigation into the motivation of secondary school students in the South-west of England to learn foreign languages. A questionnaire was constructed based on a model derived from the motivation literature to examine students' responses on 16 constructs related to motivation. This was administered to 228 students in years 7, 8 and 9. The analysis revealed a decrease in motivation with age, and higher level of motivation among girls than boys. It also revealed a strikingly higher motivation to learn German than French, which was even more marked when the boys only were considered. These ndings were further investigated using interviews. Both girls and boys were able to provide clear explanations for differences between the genders, as well as for the language differences. These included such aspects as French being considered feminine, it not being 'cool' for boys to be seen to make an effort at French, and the tendency for boys not to try at anything that appears to be tedious.

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This article describes a small-scale study into learners' attributions for success and failure in learning French. The study investigated the way in which learners conceptualise the notion of doing well, together with their perceived reasons for their successes and failures. Interviews were conducted with students from 10 to 15 years of age who were learning French in the Southwest of England. The results indicated that most of these learners tended to judge their success by external factors such as teacher approval, marks, or grades, and that the range of attributions increased with age. Many of the attributions mentioned, however, were superficial in nature. It appears that the teacher plays a significant role in the development of students' attributions. Implications are drawn with regard to language teaching and to the nature of the learning environment.

L’article met l’accent sur le rôle considérable que joue la motivation dans l’apprentissage des langues étrangères. Les auteurs soulignent la nécessité de considérer les stratégies d’apprentissage des langues en corrélation avec la motivation. Ils examinent les limites des modèles actuels de motivation dans l’apprentissage des langues et prônent un élargissement de ces modèles ; ils devraient inclure les théories récentes de la psychologie de la motivation. Les limites des premiers modèles psychologiques sont mises en parallèle avec les perspectives cognitives plus récentes dans lesquelles la notion du choix est centrale. Les auteurs suggèrent un modèle tripartite et en présentent les implications pour les enseignants de langues.

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